1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to a graphical user interface (GUI) and, in particular, to a method and system for presenting a consistent visual presentation of widgets across different dialog pages. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to establishing graphical format inter-dependencies between widgets on different dialog pages such that visual continuity is maintained when an end user traverses through different dialog pages on which the widgets reside.
2. Description of the Related Art
Data processing systems utilize many different types of user interfaces. A common user interface for personal computer systems and personal digital assistants is a graphical user interface (GUI), that provides a user with a graphical and intuitive display of information. Typically, a user interacts with a GUI display utilizing a graphical pointing device, such as a mouse, track ball, glidepad, or stylus. Depending upon the actions allowed by the application or operating system software, the user can select a widget (i.e., a user-discernable feature of the graphical display such as an icon) by positioning the pointing device to make a selection.
Increasingly complex GUI environments include multiple display panes that are presented either simultaneously or sequentially to a user. Within such complex interactive environments, it is of great value to incorporate visual aids that enable a user to perceive and comprehend a maximum amount of visually presented information. Even subtle discontinuities or contrasts can significantly impair a user""s mental processing of a simultaneous or sequential visual presentation. Discord in the visual presentation of widgets across multiple display panes within a GUI environment is a major source of disruption and confusion for users.
One approach for alleviating the problem of user confusion is to break up information into sub-panes having a finer incremental shift. Implementing this approach requires substantially greater numbers of visual display objects (additional display panes and associated widgets) and, thus, greatly increases model complexity as well as increasing the amount of overhead processing resources. In addition, this technique exacerbates the problem of inter-pane discontinuity by increasing the number of panes and widgets within a GUI.
An alternate approach is to enhance the organization and stylistics of and across each display pane. There are currently a variety of high-level GUI development tools for allowing designers to determine where and how baseline widgets are located within a given display pane, and to then estimate where corresponding widgets on other panes will be oriented with respect to the baseline widgets. This approach reduces the amount of operating time required by an end-user but still requires additional GUI development model complexity.
It can therefore be appreciated that a need exists for a GUI development tool for modifying widget design such that inter-pane influence can be utilized to provide an end-user with a consistent and organized cross-pane widget display.
A method within a graphical user interface (GUI) development environment for providing cross-pane visual display correlation between widgets that reside on different visual display panes is disclosed. A GUI development tool is utilized to specify a visual display relation between an influenced widget and an influencing widget. The influencing widget is displayed within a first display pane and the influenced widget is displayed within a second display pane. The specified visual display relation is encoded within a GUI development description of the second display pane such that visual continuity between the influenced widget and the influencing widget is observed when an end user traverses from the first to the second display pane.
All objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.